‘Foreigners taking over jobs in Nigeria’s oil & gas industry’, PENGASSAN sounds alarm

In a shocking revelation, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has raised the alarm that foreigners, especially Indians, are taking over low-level jobs such as vulcanization and gatekeeping in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, while Nigerians are battling unemployment.

This disclosure was made by none other than Festus Osifo, President of PENGASSAN on Friday at the closing ceremony of the 3rd edition of the Energy and Labour Summit.

He described it as unacceptable and worrying while lamenting the situation.

The PENGASSAN President, who also serves as President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), alleged that companies had manipulated the system by registering numerous shell companies to facilitate the entry of expatriates.

Osifo said they have registered more than 200 companies to take the action.

Listen to him: “They are taking over low-level jobs, which is a blatant abuse of the expatriate quota system,” Osifo said.

“At Sterling Oil today, you will be surprised to know that we have more Indians working there than we have Nigerians.

“In fact, right down to the vulcanizers, you have Indians doing menial jobs and functions in all their plants as operators and some even as gatekeeper operators.”

“When they bring in 10 Indians, they will use one company. Tomorrow, when they bring in 20 more, they will use another company,” he said.

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“If you check, you will find that more than 100 or 200 registered companies have these Indians spread throughout the company.”

Osifo said the union had been negotiating with the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to resolve the issue, but there had been no progress.

He said while Nigerian graduates were finding it difficult to get jobs, Indian companies were given excessive expatriate quotas, which they abused.

Osifo warned that the association might resort to confrontation if the issue remains unresolved, stressing that they were ready to act because they could not afford to be slaves in Nigeria.

Energy experts say Nigeria’s oil resources are owned by Nigerians and should primarily benefit them, even as they call on the government to take urgent action to protect the rights and opportunities of Nigerian workers.

According to the union chairman, the number of Indian nationals working at the Indorama facility in Port Harcourt exceeds that of Nigerians.

Osifo said Indians were paid in dollars while Nigerian workers were struggling with the impact of currency devaluation.

“This situation is unacceptable and must be addressed immediately,” he said.

Osifo urged relevant authorities to take stern action against companies exploiting the expatriate quota system to the detriment of Nigerian workers.

By: Babajide Okeowo

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